Pointers Vol.22-2 For Downloading

Pointers Vol. 22-2 (June 2012)

Articles include:

God’s Activity in Miracles - It was reported in the Adelaide Advertiser at Easter time that around half of all Australians believe that Jesus was born of a virgin and that he walked on water. According to this report, Australians are ready to accept the existence of miracles. Mr McCrindle, the researcher, was quoted as saying: ‘This idea of a 21st century sceptical secular mind dominating is not accurate’. Was he right?

Homelessness - When we think of homeless people we often think of those on the streets, dishevelled in appearance, roaming the rubbish bins for food, a blight on the social landscape which we wish would just disappear, or at least hide themselves from our view. In effect, however, homelessness is much broader, and any understanding of it certainly requires more deeper vision than that first image conjures up.

Notes from an American Study of Youth Ministry - Over the last decade or more, a project entitled ‘Exemplary Youth Ministry’ has been in progress in the United States. Results from the study were published in 2010 in The Spirit and Culture of Youth Ministry: Leading Congregations toward Exemplary Youth Ministry. While there are many differences between the American and Australian contexts, not least in the numbers of churches that can afford paid youth leaders, there are some findings that are important for youth ministry in Australia.

Reviewing Church Life - Reviews of church life take place in many ways such as through an ‘Annual General Meeting’ within a local church, when the leaders for a region gather such as in a Synod, or when researchers do an analysis of church life. All such reviews make certain assumptions about what ‘church life’ should be about. The Uniting Church Synod of Victoria and Tasmania has been thinking about these assumptions and suggesting some new ways to conduct reviews.

Faith at the Olympics - “Doctors and scientists said breaking the fourminute mile was impossible, that one would die in the attempt. Thus, when I got up from the track after collapsing at the finish line, I figured I was dead.” Roger Bannister’s witty comment on his own achievement captures much of the significance, wider context and even celebrity orientation of sport in the modern world.